Keeping Your Home Smelling Fresh for You and Your Cat

Odors are an important part of our daily lives: the smell of brewing coffee starts our day off on the right foot, the perfume of a fragrant rose can lift our spirits and the wafting, rich scents of a freshly baked pie can bring us comfort and make us hungry! On the other hand, bad odors like sulfur (think rotten eggs) can make us recoil in disgust.

Odors also serve an important role in many feline endeavors including feeding, social interactions and territorial delineation. Cats' noses are much more sensitive than their human counterparts: cats have been shown to possess a more complex mechanism for signaling odor information than that of the humans and other species. These differences in scent processing may be critically important to the domestic cat, who is co-habiting with humans and exposed to human selected scents throughout the home in the form of cleansers, candles, air fresheners, etc. This superior ability to detect odor also will impact how they perceive stinky odors — they may be magnified several times for the cat!

Most humans want a clean smelling home and, in a survey, it was found that concern about litterbox odor was a barrier to cat adoption. A smelly litterbox is also a problem for cats: it is considered a common reason for feline litterbox rejection and subsequent house-soiling. So how can we keep the home smelling fresh for people and their cats? Consider the following tips:

Try to prevent the odors

In the Litterbox:

Rapid and effective odor absorption will prevent the box from smelling and prevent odors from drifting throughout the home.

• Despite its popularity, baking soda is very poor at absorbing odors; its chemical structure is a solid crystal limiting its ability to soak up smells
• Carbon is a superior odor absorptive agent: it is very porous making it very effective at capturing and trapping odor; in fact one teaspoon of activated carbon has the surface area of a football field! All Fresh Step® litters contain this patented activated carbon ingredient imbedded in the litter granules thus keeping the box odor free and preventing odors from ever leaving the box resulting in a fresh smelling home.

Resting spots:

Cats are clean animals and spend a significant portion of their daily time budget engaged in grooming activities. However hair and odors can accumulate where they regularly rest. Routinely launder pet bedding to prevent odor build up; if your cat prefers to lounge on your furniture, place a throw blanket over the furniture for easy washing.

DON'T try to cover odors with Potpourri:

• Depending upon the mixture, some components of a dry potpourri mix may be toxic to cats if consumed. Warmed liquid potpourri has been associated with serious toxicity in cats as they investigate it by licking and consuming some of the liquid. It is best to either keep these out of your home or in a location that is inaccessible to your cats.

USE CAUTION with fragrances

• Make sure any fragrance product that you use in your house is pet safe.
• Remember a cat has a much more sensitive nose so what smells good to you may be very strong to your cat. Use fragranced room sprays and fresheners in moderation, if at all.

USE CAUTION with candles

• While candles can fill the home with a nice aroma, the candles themselves can be a significant hazard for the curious cat. Singed fur/whiskers or serious burns can be a consequence for cats that get too close to candles. So only light candles if you are closely supervising! Or better yet err on the side of caution and keep candles unlit.

All household members — pets and their people — will appreciate efforts to keep the house smelling fresh and clean!